Belladonna and Brugmansia

Everything around here is in bloom and looks lovely. Or looked lovely. The rain wiped out my poppies and foxglove, and flattened the mugwort, delphinium, and feverfew. The belladonna is thriving though; I put bones around her feet. She’s still loaded with blossoms; I wonder how long she’ll bloom?

And I have about six baby Brugmansia. I have no idea what species, and I probably won’t know till they bloom, which could be a while. The package said Maikoa, but I don’t know if that’s specific to a species or to the genus. More research is required, I guess.

And in other news, my new favourite book is Daniel A. Schulke’s Viridarium Umbris: The Pleasure Garden of Shadow. Sure wish I could’ve had it nine years ago; it would’ve helped me make sense of a lot of things. Oh well. Such is life. :)

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So Datura’s an Outlaw?

I can’t seem to find anyone willing to ship Datura stramonium seeds into Nova Scotia this year. Neither Veseys nor Richters will ship it anymore. Apparently the Dept. of Natural Resources has declared it a noxious weed, which seems to be rather harsh. I’ve never been able to find it in the wild, so it can’t have invaded that much yet. Perhaps I’m just not looking in the correct areas?

I started two more pumpkin varieties: Small Sugar, which is basically for eating, and Warlock, which better be freaking amazing given the price of the seeds.

My Richters order came in (minus the D. stramonium) and I’ve started most of the seeds already:

• Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)
• Rampion (Campanula rapunculus) Rapunzel, Rapunzel…
• Maikoa (Brugmansia spp.)
• Black Hollyhock (Alcea rosea nigra)
• Horehound (Marrubium vulgare)
• Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala) For dye, or for … other purposes…  hmmm…

Common Comfrey and Blue-Seeded Opium Poppy also arrived but have not been planted as of yet.

And in the garden, the Belladonna and Black Cohosh are awake, as well as the Mugwort, a small bit of Wormwood, Lady’s Mantle, Echinacea, copious amounts of Spearmint, Lemon Balm, and Catnip, Tansy, Feverfew, Delphinium, a weird Lily, Marsh Mallow, an aromatic ground cover whose name escapes me (Sweet Woodruff?), and many others.

In the woods, Trilium and Bloodroot are in bloom, as well as the May Bush (might be Sheep Laurel?), yellow and purple violets, Poison Ivy (yippee), and a few others I can’t identify. One’s a shrub with small whitish bell-shaped flowers that hang down in pairs, and the other is maybe half a foot high with small whitish bell-shaped flowers, and looks like a lily. And then there’s something that’s looks like Hemlock, but I’m not sure. Jewelweed, Meadowsweet, and Irises are also making appearances. Amazing the things you find when you’re out and about for hours at a time picking fiddleheads, lol.

And five Mandrakes are up and accounted for. Hopefully they stay awake this time. :)

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Anarcho-Herbalism

I found this article years ago. It still makes sense. Use plant medicine? Then please read it.

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